Diamond Certificates

A diamond certificate is also known as a  Diamond Grading Report. This report comes  from the Gemological Institute of America  (GIA), and you should require this report  when you are purchasing a diamond.

With a diamond certificate, you can verify  the color, cut, carat, weight, and clarity of the  diamond. You don’t have to worry about a  diamond dealer telling you anything less than  the truth, because the certificate comes  from the GIA – not the dealer. You may be  required to pay for the certificate, but the  cost is usually low, and in many cases, it  will help you negotiate a better price on the  diamond – or keep you from purchasing a  lower quality diamond altogether.

If you buy a high quality diamond, and then  later decide to sell the diamond, you will  need to have the certificate, or you will have  a hard time selling it to someone else.  Furthermore, you can use the Diamond  Grading Report to look up the wholesale  value of the diamond in question. Use the  guide that is used by the diamond cutting  industry.

With the Certificate, or Diamond Grading  Report, there won’t be any doubts when you  are trying to purchase a diamond. You can  easily find out what the diamond is worth.  This will prevent you from overpaying, and it  can prevent a seller from under-charging as  well.

A copy of the Diamond Grading Report  should be given to your insurance company  as well, when you insure the diamond. This  provides absolute, unquestionable proof of  the value of the diamond should it be stolen  in the future. Insurance companies cannot  argue with the report.

Avoid diamond dealers who seem reluctant to provide a certificate! Also avoid sellers  who tell you that a certificate diamond will  cost you more – the only additional cost  should be the cost of the certificate, which  is low. If the dealer doesn’t want to provide  a certificate, then you don’t want to do  business with that dealer.

Don’t accept certificates from Gemological  Laboratories other than GIA. There are many  fly-by-night Gemological labs these days, but  in the end, GIA has been established as the  most respectable and trustworthy – not to  mention oldest – of the lot. So avoid dealers  who don’t want to use GIA for certification  purposes as well.

Don’t buy an expensive diamond without  paying the extra cost of the certificate. If a  dealer tries to convince you to make the  purchase without the certificate, or if they  want to use a company other than GIA, you  can be sure that the dealer has probably  greatly inflated the price of the diamond –  they have something that they are hiding  from you.